Trams and Locos

All set up for the Leeds Model Railways Society Exhibition this weekend at the Grammar School. The door display works and after a couple of hick ups the cranes are both working. (I forgot how to work some of the DCC). Lots of other things to see at the show - got to this page for more details https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/forum/101-area-groups-clubs-societies-exhibitions-social/ If you have been following please say hello. Andy Ross

Thank you for the comments. Don is the president of our society and I can confirm that he is still on with his next book on Hunslet Diesels. We have not seen him for a while but we are hoping he will attend our exhibition the weekend after next. If he does I will ask for an update. Andy

Based on the comment above see below a closer photo of the louvers. As I said above the doors were drawn full size including the lovers as drawn. You will see from the drawing below they are punched out by a special tool in the sheet metal shop and are drawn with the bottom line only. When I scale these down I added a top line and and put a small gap between each louver. The whole door is then set up to be half etched except the louvers and the boss for the door handles - handles to be fitted after painting.

The weekend has been spent on the working version of the MOD loco. As I have still to get over not having engines and compressors etc to fit I thought I would fit all the casing doors. This proved to be painful as it is all well and good making all these separately to go on pallets etc around a loco in build, putting them all together was very fiddly. In addition as I have drawn everything full size from the original drawings and then scaled them down some of the overlaps were so small they did not work. In future I will draw two versions of the doors, separate and all closed. On saying all that it does not look too bad as seen below. I am really please with the exhaust cowling. There is still plenty to do but it will be ok like this for our exhibition. The next job is to sort out the door display. I collected the temp board on Friday and will start transferring the mechanism parts tomorrow. But I am still waiting for new etches so it may be a bit touch and go. Andy

So a little bit of progress on the second MOD loco that will be the working one. I have removed the wheel sets so I can solder more parts on. The side valances are now fitted and I haves soldered on the checker plate panels. I am really please with how these have come out. The engine casing is next. On another note my friend Ken has built the new temp baseboard for the doors which I am collecting tomorrow, So I will transfer the structure and get as far as I can without the new etched parts that I hope will turn up next week. This should give me enough time to assemble the new door mechanism before our exhibition on the 23rd and 24th of October. More updates to follow. Andy

They could be. I did several different types. I remember doing a lot ok Peak frames for certain.

Lofty it’s making me feel old too. When I was still at school I used to go round to Mikes and did moulding for him for his kits. I only did the bogie parts. Whilst waiting for the resin to go off I used to run trains around the Garden. That must of been about 44 years ago.

Just a reminder of what it needs to look like when it is finished. © Hunslet Engine Company Does anyone know were I can get 7mm scale German buffers from. Thanks Andy

More progress over the weekend with the structure for the working MOD loco. The roof is rolled to shape first and then I form the corners around some 3mm rod held in small vice. The joins with the cab sides are in the same place as the real Hunslet cab. The roof is held in place and I tacked with the Iron at the corners then soldered up. Once it is all soldered up the positioning tabs are filed off and it is all cleaned up. Also put the rear casing, radiator casing and the fuel tank together. I have not fitted the bottom plate on the fuel tank for this one as the motor will fit up into this. And finally I have made the gearbox torque arm bracket and torque arm from it own little etch that will fit on the frames. More updates to follow.

So while I am waiting for parts for the modified doors I have got on with some other bits. Built up three of my stillage kits and a set of lifting brackets for the second MOD loco (the one that is going to work - there is some video of the underframe above). this is the cab for the same loco coming together - it all slots together to solder and then you file off the excess that formed the slots - soldered form the outside so it leaves a very fine bead of solder on the inside joints and it easy then to remove the excess on the out side - the corners will have the small radius filled on. Don't forget if you want to see the display including the working cranes, loco projects, Hunslet photo display etc., please come along to the Leeds Model Railway Society CIO exhibition at Leeds Grammar School 23rd and 24th October. Andy

Just a quick update. Just placed order for new etches. This includes the re designed inner two doors and all the mechanism brackets to accommodate the additional guide bar and bearing blocks. With a bit of luck I should have all the parts to rebuild the complete door assembly in time for our show (Leeds grammar school 23rd, 24th October) along with the rest of the display. Andy

It is more than a few days since the last update due to nothing more than frustration. In a nutshell with the current drive arrangement as it is, it will not work. As sold the kit includes two guide rods with one guide bearing block per rod. As I needed bearing guides for two frames I thought I could get away with using just one guide bar and it would help with the overall weight of the layout. This was fine with the plastic trial doors but the weight of the etched doors just tip it over the edge from being smooth. The second problem is the free door that is pushed and pulled by the driven door sags on the bearing clearance and this leads to it crabbing and sticking. When I bought these I could not find the rod guide blocks separately on eBay but I have now, so I have more than enough on order so I can re do the mock up with more support. Yes I will need another temp base board to prove this but I need to be sure I get this working before we move on. I am also going to pull it all closer together. this will reduce the size of all the brackets and could help with rigidity. You can see how the free door sags in the pic below. On the positive side the have come out better than I thought when put in position so once they are sorted drive wise I will be very please. If you look at some of the photos of the real door earlier in the thread I they look like the real ones. Same goes for the inside shots, see below. One thing that has come out ok is the motor mounting bracket assembly - see below. The next task now is to draw the new set up under the baseboard and ask a friend to make a new board and at the same time redraw the brackets and all being well by the time our exhibition come around in October it will be all back together again this time working. You might wonder why I would show the problems on here and not just wait until it is all resolved before posting. The thing is that this is such a big project and we are doing things with this that I don't believe have been done before and I think it is important to show all the learning processes we are going through which could help others with unusual projects. Andy R

The next job on the doors was to assemble the upper track guide. In real life this appears to be bracketed off a beam across the door that you can see in the photo below with the pipe running across it. Below the beam is some sort of weather cover which I still need to make for both inside and out - I have the triangular brackets some ware in a box to fit. So on the outside I thought as I was drawing it that rather than use some beam section it would be better to combine it all together and that way the top of the beam could be extended to include the top of the two tracks. See the photos below. In the end this has all come out ok but it was a bit of pain as it it the longest single etched assembly I have put together. It is not that easy to photo put you can just see the tracks and the brackets from the track to the bottom of the beam in the shots below. Before I put any of the stiffeners on I am going to build up the mechanism brackets that connect to the lead screws to the doors. these support the bottom of the doors and if it all works out right the top of the doors should go into the track and everything will be in line. I have discovered another issue with the doors which means the inner two doors need the top bracket moving over one etched sheet thickness as they will clash at them moment as I did not allow for the rivet head that I punched through and I am not filing them off as it will spoil how they look. More to follow in a few days.

Thank you for this. But the one I need to get apart is the soldered one and the heat this will take will just distort the half etched strips even more and make them even more unusable. Based on the success of the taped ones I think I have no option other than starting from scratch.

The week has been a bit hectic including trips to Sites in Scotland and Somerset and one night away. But I did get chance during the week to get the 100w Iron out and have a go putting the 5 layers that make up each door together. I have to say the first door was nothing more than a disaster as can be seen below - the big Iron is all well and good for getting the solder to flow when there are so many layers and mass of material but that amount of heat is also going to start distorting everything especially thin half etched strips and once they have gone they will never go back. What is annoying is I should of know better from the 10 Years I spent in a fabrication company working with stainless which also does not like lots of heat when welded and if not restrained in jigs and fixtures would set off in all directions. The other issue is also soldering it all together as the layers are added there are too many strips of material to solder down. A resistance Iron might work but I don't have one and it is still going to generate too much heat to do so many layers. So were to go from here. As I was ranting at my frustration of how to do this my better half pointed out that sometimes you just cannot solder everything together - why don't I use super glue. This set me thinking - that might work but how do I make sure i get it under all the areas especially on the vertical thin strips. the next thought was double sided Sellotape but would it be strong and permanent enough. I cut a couple of scrap of Nickle Silver and stuck them together with some tape. It appears to work. This was all well and good but I did not want to mess about with stripes of tape so I obtained some A5 double sided sheets from Hobbycraft and using these I stuck all the layers together. Only using this on the door areas as I will still need to solder the very bottom of the bottom section onto the lead screw cross beam brackets. As you can see it has worked. The other two doors will be put together in the same way. I can not see a way to recover the first one so will have to have another set of parts etched next time I have some parts to go to PPD. I will use it as it is to do the set up and prove the doors work with the new upper track, yet to be put together and fitted to the structure. Andy